Tischauser believes that the decision by Hate Club 1488, which is based out of St. Louis, Missouri, to rally in Columbus was one that had been carefully calculated to stoke fears and associate themselves with Trump’s victory.
“It was a well-timed march. They picked their location, an island of blue in a sea of red,” says Tischauser. “And the ways that migrants were used by GOP elected officials and candidates during the election really put Ohio on the map for groups like Hate Club.”
Other extremist groups, such as the Proud Boys and Blood Tribe, are also active in Ohio. “White power groups are competing among themselves, among a finite resource of people that they can recruit and fundraise from,” said Tischauser. “They’re trying to say, “We’re the realest of the neo-Nazis.’”
In August, a coalition of activist groups in the state formed Ohioans Against Extremism in response to what they saw as rising extremism on the streets and in the state house. Their executive director, Maria Bruno, says they were grateful for the national spotlight on the issue of rising extremism in Ohio following the Columbus rally, but is a little surprised it’s taken this long. “At the same time, it’s hard not to feel like, where have you all been?” says Bruno. “This is something that I and marginalized communities in Ohio have been screaming about for years.”
Blood Tribe set up shop in Ohio in 2023, and a slew of alarming incidents followed. Twenty members of Blood Tribe showed up to a Pride event and a Jewish center in Toledo; 26 armed Blood Tribe members rallied outside a drag story hour in Columbus, chanting “There will be blood”; a coalition of extremist groups including Blood Tribe, the Proud Boys, and White Lives Matter rallied outside a drag queen story hour in Wadsworth; a member of White Lives Matter firebombed a progressive church in Chesterland, Ohio, that had been planning a drag queen story hour.
Earlier this year, Nashville, Tennessee, also emerged as a flashpoint for neo-Nazi activity. In February, about 36 members of Blood Tribe and another group called Vinland Rebels marched through historically Black neighborhoods in Nashville, chanting “Deport every Mexican” and performing Nazi salutes. Over the course of several weeks in July, a network called Goyim Defense League held several antisemitic rallies across Nashville. (Goy is a Hebrew term used to describe non-Jews, sometimes disparagingly, which has been coopted by antisemites).
In one instance, about 30 members of the Goyim Defense League wore T-shirts saying “Whites Against Replacement” and disrupted the Nashville-Davidson county metro council public meeting, performing Nazi salutes and berating media and bystanders with slurs. According to The Guardian, the Nashville police chief learned that the Goyim Defense League had secured a temporary residence about 65 miles away in Scottsville, Kentucky. They had seemingly zeroed in on Nashville because, like Columbus, it’s a bastion of liberalism in a red state.
Tischauser expects these groups to ramp up demonstrations as they envision themselves influencing and engaging with not just state but federal policies. And by latching onto Trumpism—whether MAGA likes it or not—they’re trying to prod his supporters into backing an increasingly extreme version of their president.